Annual Merit Review Process Economics Lecturer

As part of the annual merit review process each spring, a Lecturer will turn in the
following three forms: Faculty Activities; Self Evaluation of Teaching Methods; and
Goals for Teaching, Professional Growth, and Service. Lecturers do not need to complete
the Economics Department Self Evaluation Form. Merit points to be assigned to the
faculty member will be based on the following:

i) 20 points---Objective Portion of the Student Evaluation Instrument. Points will be assigned
as follows:

For each class taught during the academic year (including summer courses) the cumulative
percent of the students that agree or strongly agree on the following four (4) student
evaluation factors: presentation skills, organization and clarity, dynamism/enthusiasm,
and general instruction, will be recorded. The median score of the array of all the
cumulative frequencies will be computed.

ii) 20 points--- Chair's Evaluation of Teaching. This evaluation will be based on student comments
on the evaluation, discussion with the faculty member, the instructor's "input" into
teaching (syllabus, handouts, assignments, etc.), classroom observations, and other
factors.

iii) 15 points--- Faculty Development Activities. Evaluation will be based on faculty development
activities related to teaching. A Lecturer should be aware of the economics education
literature as it relates to teaching college-level economics and be making efforts
to incorporate effective teaching methods into the classroom. In addition, Lecturers
are expected to attend workshops or seminars on effective teaching. Expectations for
the department are a minimum of 40 faculty development hours per year. New course
development activities are also considered here.

iv) 15 points---Teaching Duties. Factors such as maintaining offices hours, placing syllabi on
web, teaching load, off-campus teaching, conducting review sessions, and the number
of preparations are all considered here. Efforts in helping the department attain
its goals related to teaching are also important. As an example, the Economics Department
has a goal of incorporating technology (computers, quantitative solution software)
in upper division quantitative courses and of integrating significant writing assignments
in other upper division economics courses.

v) 15 points---Lecturers will be engaged in service activities by participating in committees
in the Economics Department, the Richards College of Business, and University-wide.

vi) 15 points---Professional growth activities---A Lecturer should be engaged in professional growth
activities. Such activities include: attending academic conferences, presenting papers
at academic conferences, discussing papers at conferences, obtaining research or teaching
grants, writing book/software reviews, serving as a referee for a journal, and publishing
papers (both in reviewed and non-peer reviewed publications). The expectation is that
a Lecturer will be "engaged" in professional growth activities each year. In addition,
he/she is expected to have a peer-reviewed publication at least once every three years.